NGOs Urge UN Secretary-General Ban to Intervene

37 NGOs Urge UN Secretary-General Ban to Intervene on Darfur

Geneva, June 14, 2007 - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's stance on Darfur has "dissipated pressure rather than building it," according to an appeal published today by UN Watch and 36 other non-governmental organizations. Based in Geneva, UN Watch represented the largest NGO coalition at the UN Human Rights Council's December 2006 special session on Darfur, and organized the Council's March 2007 international NGO summit.

The letter calls on Mr. Ban to immediately intensify pressure on all sides to stop the conflict, criticizing the UN for "getting Sudan to repeat previous commitments" which it then portrays as victory. The appeal, coinciding with Ban's completion of six months in office, comes as the UN Human Rights Council-which has failed to take action on Darfur-struggles to conclude its first year without being judged a failure.

"Khartoum has used the 'time for diplomacy' line for the last four years, and the UN has taken the bait," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. "The Secretary-General must push for immediate action to show that the UN is no longer falling for Sudan's crying wolf."

According to Neuer, the current Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva underscores the insufficiency of the UN's approach. Yesterday, the Council discussed yet another UN report on Darfur that called for more reports, "all of which has done absolutely nothing to abate the killings, mass rape and ethnic cleansing by the Sudanese army and the state-sponsored Janjaweed militias."

Neuer urged the UN Secretary-General "to tell the Sudanese government, the victims in Darfur, and the international community that this time, if Khartoum backs out of its promise to allow UN peacekeepers, there will be serious consequences. The lives and futures of the suffering Darfuri people will depend on it."

ENDS

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